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… have left us with a beautiful front yard! We are being overwhelmed by freesia, azaleas, roses, lilac, camellias… I often bless the prior owner who put in so many lovely plants for us to enjoy! I, unfortunately, have a black thumb. It’s true. I can kill any plant if you give me enough time (usually a couple of weeks), but my Darling Husband is fantastic! He keeps our indoor and outdoor plants happy and healthy!

We had such a cold winter, we thought we had lost a lot of our outdoor plants. Many of our shrubs looked dead, but they have all fooled us! The geraniums turned brown and brittle and frozen. But now they are sending up new green shoots from the ground, so we are optimistic that even they will make it back.

Springtime has finally arrived! And I am so glad!

Springtime here means a couple of things (besides all the lovely flowers). It means that I only have a couple of months left in my chemo! YAY! And it means I switch my crafting to brighter colors, lighter projects, and that I take the time to clean out closets and drawers — to make room for even MORE fabric, yarn, and thread!

I’ve been using up scraps. Lots of little projects have been going — I made five chemo caps this month and took them to the hospital last week. I crocheted some fuzzy yarn around the straps of a new pair of flip-flops to make sandals that match my jeans. This week I have been working on getting the wedding photos into a scrap book. And, finally, with my birthday money, I bought a drop spindle and plan on trying to spin some silk yarn.

My blood work shows that my white counts are too low for chemo right now, so I’ve been given a couple of weeks off to try to get those numbers back up. Going without the meds means I have a bit more energy, so I have even been able to sit at the sewing machine for a while. I’m working on a new project bag for my knitting with fabric I found on our honeymoon.

Oh, and Greg reminded me that I need to hem up his new pants this week.

Sometimes, I really enjoy having a bunch of small projects that I can get instant gratification from when I finish them. Sometimes, I like longer projects that take several days/weeks/months to complete. I try to always have a couple of each kind in the works so that I can do whatever seems like fun at the moment.

Crafting is a joy to me. It should never be a “yadda.” You know – “Yadda wash the dishes.” “Yadda pay the bills.” Yadda, yadda, yadda… Crafting should be for fun. It’s like playing for grown-ups!

So treat yourself. Craft something you love. For someone you love. FOR YOURSELF!

So on Monday we went and got our wedding license. SQUEE! I am getting so excited! The wedding is just over 3 weeks away! I better get that dress done, hadn’t I?

Anyway, while we were getting our license, we also had a friend of ours sworn in as Deputy for a Day so that she can perform the ceremony for us. They made her promise to uphold and defend the constitution. Hopefully, that won’t be necessary during our wedding!

While we were talking to her, I realized that she would need a clipboard or something to hold the written service during the ceremony. We talked about it some, and went out and bought a purple binder. Yes, it was purple and it matched the rest of the wedding, but vinyl covered in clear plastic looks so cheap! I just didn’t want that at the wedding. I looked at wedding guest books (have you seen the prices in the bridal aisle at your local craft store???) and I even looked at some pretty scrapbooks (ditto the prices).

So, being the Chronic Creator (I think I’ll take that as my superhero name) I headed to the fabric store. I found fabric that was perfect to cover our binder, on sale for $3 a yard, and I only needed half a yard! Such a bargain! I also found scrapbook paper and stickers at 40% – 50% off. So, $24.95 later and a little bit of sewing, I have a custom binder to hold, not only our service, but our engagement and wedding photos! I hope to have some of the engagement pictures in it before the wedding so that people can look at the album during the reception.
Remember covering your school books with a brown paper bag? Well, this is the same concept, only in fabric. Turn in all the edges and hem them, then wrap it around your binder and pin it to measure. After it’s all folded around the binder, I stitch the edges together and it slips right on. I’ve used the same technique to cover Bibles and other books in the past. Sometimes I use a layer of low loft batting behind the fabric, but this time I just used the fabric.

I decorated mine with a ribbon and a rhinestone buckle (4 buckles for $2.00, I kid you not!) but you can use lace, contrasting fabric, leave it plain, or even hot glue a small picture frame to the front. My personal philosophy is that a girl can’t have too much sparkle!
If you decide to give this a try and open your book flat to measure the fabric, make sure you leave a little extra fabric in the width as it will need some ease when you close your book.